


Snow

by HungryLibrary



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Mentions of Death, also Weiss sings again, basically sad, including the death of at least one child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 17:43:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1656938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HungryLibrary/pseuds/HungryLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Huntress is taught that every Grimm slain is a human life saved. </p>
<p>But there are a great many Grimm in the world, and not nearly enough Hunters to fight them all.</p>
<p>Sometimes you will be too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow

It was a large church for such a small and rural village.

The brown-striped stone of the floor matched nearby cliffs, the villagers had obviously quarried it out themselves sometime in the distant past.

Now both floor and walls were marred by claw marks.

Weiss stepped across the threshold with her breath held tight in her chest. The reports said no survivors but Ruby had insisted they scope it out themselves, check it one more time, just in case.

Her optimism was not infections.

Any tentative hope Weiss had been clinging to disappeared the moment she saw the church doors- or what was left of them anyway.

The inside was worse.

She stayed on the outskirts of the red stains and splintered wooden pews. How Ruby could walk so calmly among them- as if they hadn’t been full of families just two days ago- Weiss failed to fathom.

All the bodies that could be found had already been removed, but the thought that one might have been overlooked, that  _they_  might be the ones to stumble across it….

Broken glass crunched under her heels as she paced beside the walls.

It was a sound that reminded Weiss of nothing so much as freshly fallen snow, like the kind that lay just beyond these shattered windows and empty houses.

Any tracks had long since been buried during last night’s storm.

Their chances of catching the Grimm were slight, slim to none really, but Ruby…

She was the team leader. If she made the call to go on a wild goose chase, then there was nothing Weiss could do but follow along and make sure they did their best.

Weiss wondered, watching that red cloak drift slowly from bloodstain to bloodstain, whether Ruby really had had any hope when she brought them here.

“Ah.”

Weiss jumped. Her heart leaped into her throat at the sound of Ruby’s voice, so loud in the otherwise silent building.

“What is it? Did you find something?”

Her own voice came out a bit sharper than usual. Ruby had bent down and was crouching over a pile of rubble not twenty feet away- but Weiss made no move to join her.

It felt as if her legs had been frozen in place.

“Mm, kinda.”

There was a sad smile in Ruby words as she straightened up again.

A second later she turned to face Weiss, and the older girl saw why.

Barely half the size of Ruby’s palm, the glove was tiny and hand knitted, a fit only for a child. A very… very young child.

“Pretty brightly colored, isn’t it?” Ruby mused, turning her find over delicately as if it were a wounded bird.

“The clean-up crew must have been in a big rush if they missed something like this.”

Weiss exhaled slowly, watching her own shaky breath blur the mitten’s outline.

“..I suppose it’s only naturally they left it behind. There is no family to return it to, after all….”

Ruby let loose a smile laugh and nodded, still staring at the glove.

She didn’t see how the sound of her laughter made Weiss shiver.

“Guess not… Still, it’s really well made, seems sad to just leave it lying around.”

Weiss’s stomach gave a sickening jolt.

She sincerely hoped Ruby wasn’t going to start collecting morbid mementos of every town or village they were too late to save. Their small room back at Beacon would be full before the start of next term.

But Ruby, thankfully, did not pocket the mitten.

Red twirled around her ankles as she slipped between the broken pews, coming to a stop before the overturned altar that lay at the head of the church.

Weiss edged closer in spite of herself, watching as her partner pulled the carved stone back upright and gave it a quick dusting with her sleeve.

Then Ruby bowed her head and knelt before the altar, tiny mitten cupped between her hands.

“I didn’t know you made Observances.”

The words were out of Weiss’s mouth before she could stop them, realizing too late that they would be a rather rude interruption. 

Ruby only laughed again, this time a little less hollowly.

“I don’t, actually. But they-“

She tilted her head to indicate the little piece of wool in her hands.

“-They obviously did. A lot. The whole town came here when the Grimm attacked- they must have thought they’d be safe.”

Sanctuary turned into a slaughter house.

Weiss shifted back just slightly, away from the blackish-red stain she had unwitting edged near to.

“… So you think this is how they would want to be remembered?”

Ruby smiled but did not answer.

Her head bowed and the silence returned, long and cold and biting.

Weiss’s palms stung as her nails dug into them. She looked around the room, high ceiling and wood paneled walls that had been torn away in places to show the stone underneath.

It had been carefully built, this place.

Built for music and songs and choirs all singing together. The sounds would have spread from the front of the room, just to the right of where Ruby was still kneeling, and welcomed anyone who happened to step through the church doors…

Now the air was dead and filled with the cloying stench of decay.

“How about a song, Weiss?”

For the second time that day, the sound of Ruby’s voice almost gave her a heart attack.

Ruby was on her feet again, carefully arranging the unknown child’s mitten upon the altar- but Weiss could feel the attention on her, heavy as a hand on her shoulder.

“I don’t know any of their hymns.”

In that moment it felt like a great failure on her part.

“Well I don’t know any of their prayers,” Said Ruby, stepping back from the altar with one last bow and eyeing her efforts with a tiny touch of satisfaction.

“-Still is better than nothing, though. Right?”

“I suppose…”

The silence stretched on.

Worried silver eyes caught her gaze from across the dried carnage and dust.

“Um, you don’t have to if you don’t want-“

“Shut up and let me  _think_  for moment. I’m not used to impromptu performances!”

Ruby fell obediently silent, pulling her cloak close against the chill.

She was bright against the grey stone and old wood. Vivid and out of place, like a rose blooming out of season, standing alone among the faded stalks of its fellows…

A song came to mind.

Not religious in any way, but it had been written in memory of the dead.

It would have to do. The tune was in Weiss’s head and she knew there was no point trying to sing another.

So she stepped through the wreckage to the place where a choir once stood, and turned to face a room that felt fuller than any packed concert hall.

“… ‘Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone…”

As she expected, the church had excellent acoustics.  

Weiss lifted her voice a little higher. She tested the walls and the ceiling, so painstakingly painted with scenes Weiss did not understand, and reached into every corner and alcove.

The slight resonance was perfect. It must have taken generations to get it right.

Confidence spurred her, and Weiss poured strength into the next note, savoring the way it rang back to her.

“…Thus kindly I scatter, my leaves on the bed-“

She glanced to Ruby, certain the girl had made some sudden move- But her partner’s eyes were closed and everything about her seemed still.

Weiss put the distraction aside and focused as the song ran slowly down.

“When true hearts lie withered, and fond ones are flown…. Oh, who would inhabit this bleak world alone…?”

It didn’t feel as if they were alone anymore.

Even as the last of the echoes faded into thin air, the room seemed to be listening. Weiss had to fight the old compulsion to take a bow before stepping down from the dais- so strong was the sensation of having an audience.

But they  _were_  alone, Weiss reminded herself firmly as she wove back to where Ruby stood.

People could believe whatever they wished- rational minds understood that there were no such things as ghosts.

This just made the sheer amount of relief she felt upon reaching Ruby so much more of an insult.

“Are we done now? Can we go, or do you want spend the afternoon sweeping up the glass as well?”

Not even Weiss was sure if she meant it sarcastically or not.

It didn’t much matter though, seeing as Ruby hadn’t been listening.

Weiss could hardly believe it. There were  _tears_  in her partner’s eyes, tearstains on the floor before her, and she looked to be teetering somewhere between smiling and sobs.

“… I didn’t realize it was that sad of a song.”

Weiss could have hit herself.

Great. Excellent job comforting her, Weiss. Make her sound like a sop- that will certainly help Ruby feel better!

Ruby sniffed and rubbed at her eyes with one sleeve, oblivious to Weiss’s internal muttering.

“It- it was amazing- You’ve got a really beautiful voice, Weiss. I’m sure they liked it.”

She smiled shakily, and Weiss had to struggle to return it, the mention of ‘they’ managing to make her hair stand on end.

“Good.” Wonderfully built or not, it was past time to leave the premises. “Then let’s leave ‘them’ to it and-“

A howl cut off her words.

Another answered it, and another. Soon the air was filled with wavering cries, much longer and deeper than any normal wolf could ever create.

“Beowolves.” Weiss suppressed a snarl.

“They must have stayed close after all… We should regroup with the others and go clean them out, right Ruby?”

There was no answer.

“…Ruby?”

She turned to find nothing but a scattering of rose petals.

Then a moment later, far in the distance, came the sound of familiar gunshots. 


End file.
